The Wicomico County Salary Review Committee voted unanimously Oct. 22 to recommend raising the county sheriff’s base salary from $117,000 by $6,000 per year over four years, reaching $141,000 at the end of that period.

The recommendation, which the committee will submit to the County Council as a formal proposal, grew out of a two-hour discussion about the sheriff’s duties, staffing pressures, overtime burdens and comparisons with other Maryland counties.

Committee members said they considered multiple factors in framing the recommendation: Wicomico’s sheriff’s office performs patrol, courtroom security, airport policing and other duties that in some counties are split among multiple agencies; the department’s rank-and-file and command pay; and recent and projected increases in starting pay for deputies in neighboring counties. "I do have approximately 100 sworn armed sheriff's deputies that are making, split second life and death situations every single day," Sheriff Mike Lewis told the committee during the Oct. 22 meeting. "And, ultimately, I'm responsible for them.""We are down about seven deputies," Lewis said, describing recent departures and the effect on overtime.

Lewis told the committee the office has roughly 100 sworn deputies and about "approximately 30, 35" civilian staff. He described operational responsibilities that include daily patrols, quarterly registration duties for approximately 220 registered offenders in the county, airport security under a memorandum of agreement with TSA on an overtime basis, and frequent overtime assignments for court proceedings and community events. Lewis said his command staff currently includes a chief deputy at about $133,000, majors at about $131,000, captains at $124,000 and lieutenants at about $111,000 — figures the committee cited in discussing "salary compression," where supervisors earn considerably more than the sheriff.

Committee members reviewed county-to-county comparisons during the session. Participants noted that some Maryland counties set sheriff responsibilities differently: Anne Arundel and Montgomery counties separate police patrol from the sheriff's civil and courtroom duties, while counties such as Cecil and Frederick more closely resemble Wicomico’s combined law-enforcement role. The committee discussed publicly reported salaries in peer counties and agreed the local sheriff's pay lagged behind comparable offices.

Members also raised several operational considerations that informed the recommendation: planned or expected increases in starting pay for deputies (committee members were told starting salaries had risen from about $46,000 years ago to about $57,200 and were expected by some to reach the mid-60s to low-70s in the region), the county’s recent $40 million sheriff’s office facility and a multi-year body-worn camera appropriation the council approved for the office. Lewis said he is not part of ongoing FOP contract negotiations between the county executive and the Fraternal Order of Police, but noted union-driven increases at the lower end of the pay scale influence compression at higher ranks.

The committee also heard from Lewis about a proposed 287(g) cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He said any local agreement would be limited to detention-center processing and would not involve deputies conducting street enforcement with ICE. "We will never be conducting enforcement operations on the street with ICE," Lewis said.

After discussion on possible target figures, members debated whether to recommend a single-step increase or a staged approach. The committee voted to recommend the staged approach: increase the sheriff’s base salary by $6,000 per year for four years, to reach $141,000 at the end of the fourth year. The motion passed unanimously on a roll call.

The committee directed staff to finalize a written report summarizing its rationale and the comparative data; committee members said they would deliver the recommendation to the County Council at a future meeting for the council’s consideration. The committee scheduled follow-up internal meetings to finalize the report and planned to present to the council on Dec. 2 unless scheduling required a different date.

The committee’s recommendation is advisory; the County Council has the authority to accept, modify or reject the proposal. The committee’s report will include the numerical comparisons, staffing data and the committee’s reasoning for a staged increase.